Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The Snowflake Special was today and it was great!  The equipment used was a 6 car train made up entirely of 2200s, the oldest in the fleet.  We traversed parts of every line, traveled in every subway and visited some rarely seen yard trackage.  We started at Rosemont northbound for our first photo stop at O’Hare, then headed back south.  We pulled into Foster middle track (former Jefferson Park yard) for photo run-bys at Jefferson Park and Addison.  Then into the loop and out to 63rd St. lower yard.  A rare opportunity for a passenger train.  At that point we headed back to the loop for our lunch stop.  After lunch we went on the Orange line for a photo opportunity at 35th/Archer.  Afterward we headed down into the State St. subway and up to Howard, then to Skokie Shops.  The CTA was kind enough to park a pair of 5000s for us to see as we entered the yard.  After some switching, we headed down the Skokie test track.  The CTA guys thought that this was the first passenger train to ever go down the test track.  Don’t know if that is true (there have been a LOT of fantrips dating way back), but it sure was a highlight for us.  We headed back to Howard for a restroom break and to do a few loops around Howard yard, then up to Linden to loop that yard also.  Then it was back down toward the loop, then over parts of the green, pink, and finally blue line for the trip back to Rosemont.  Of course the afternoon was littered with photo stops including a thrilling one where our train paced a revenue train southbound into Belmont.  Thanks to our CTA crew it came off without a hitch and the collection of photographers at the south end of the Belmont platform was incredible.  What a great way to spend a day as I’m sure the approx. 280 passengers will attest to.  David Harrison did a great job getting the ball rolling and working with Bob Heinlein and the CTA came up with a great routing plan.

The trip was a fundraiser to get the 2000s inside the next barn.  The good news is we are about half way there!  The challenge is that they still need donations.  Please consider donating to the “2000s Fund” as they are the only Chicago Rapid Transit equipment in the museum’s collection that is still stored outside.  Great job David, Bob, Richard Schauer coordinating ticket sales, today’s IRM volunteer car captains, our fantastic CTA crew who made sure the day went smoothly, and most of all those of you who supported this trip with such enthusiasm that we had to put an additional 2 cars on the train to accommodate everyone who wanted to ride.  The museum and the 2000s THANK YOU!!!!!